Yorkshire Artspace

Yorkshire Artspace Established in 1977, Yorkshire artspace provides quality, affordable studio space for over 160 Sheffield based creatives.

In 2001 we moved to our first purpose built building, Persistence Works. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects, Persistence Works has won a RIBA Award, a RIBA Yorkshire White Rose Award and a Civic Trust Award Commendation. The building was also a finalist in the Prime Ministers’ Better Public Building Awards in 2002. In 2010, we expanded our workspace provision with four brand new purpose

built, eco-designed studios at Manor Oaks. Designed by Michael Brooke Architecture and developed in partnership with Green Estate, the studios have green ‘living’ roofs and is accessed through a Chelsea award-winning garden. In 2012 we took on Exchange Place, a stunning Art Deco building in the historic Castlegate area of Sheffield City Centre with more than 60 studios spaces located over six floors,

🎮 OPENING NEXT WEEK…Sheffield DocFest’s Alternate Realities exhibition explores the documentary and storytelling possibi...
05/06/2026

🎮 OPENING NEXT WEEK…

Sheffield DocFest’s Alternate Realities exhibition explores the documentary and storytelling possibilities of gaming multi-worlds, featuring exciting works created in video games.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is Sheffield of Stories by Adam Clarke, created in partnership with The National Videogame Museum. This work allows visitors to explore a fictionalised version of Sheffield, created in Minecraft during family workshops at NVM.

The exhibition also showcases examples of some of the most innovative approaches to storytelling within the gaming space, including ‘Coded Black’ by YAS members Human Studio. The project blends game mechanics with historical documentary to explore the history of anti-Black racism in the US and UK.

Opening times:
10 — 15 Jun 2026
10.00 — 18.00

Exhibition Opening:
Tue 09 Mar, 17.00 — 20.00
Everyone welcome

.courtinat .studio

Looking back a couple of weeks to our closing event for Lucie Kordačová’s Testing Ground residency, featuring a stunning...
05/06/2026

Looking back a couple of weeks to our closing event for Lucie Kordačová’s Testing Ground residency, featuring a stunning performance with flutist Kristýna Farag.

During the performance, Kristýna played several ‘musical incantations’ associated with harvest, land, and seasons, moving between sculptural music stands whilst Lucie interacted with works and the gallery space. At the end, they moved outside and finished the performance surrounded by Exchange Place’s beautiful Grey To Green planting and wearing costumes made by Lucie during the residency. The work they have developed together will now inform a performance at with our friends .

It was an inspiring 8 weeks having Lucie in residence with us and we look forward to seeing what she does next!

📸

.farag

🌾 THIS FRIDAY 🌾Join us on Friday 22 May, 17.00–19.00, for a special closing event marking the end of Lucie Kordačová’s T...
19/05/2026

🌾 THIS FRIDAY 🌾

Join us on Friday 22 May, 17.00–19.00, for a special closing event marking the end of Lucie Kordačová’s Testing Ground residency. It has been absolutely brilliant having Lucie in the space, watching her material experiments take form, coming to life and shapeshifting as the residency has progressed. Come and see them for yourself and celebrate what Lucie has produced during her 8 weeks at Exchange Place.

There will be musical performances throughout the evening by Lucie’s collaborator, flautist Kristyna Farag. (First performance: 17.15). There will also be wine served, so we can raise a glass to Lucie. 🥂

—

CLOSING EVENT & PERFORMANCE
Fri 22 May, 17.00–19.00
Exchange Place, S2 5TR

—

Our sincere thanks also to .kil , & for visiting the studio and having such rich discussions with Lucie. 👏👏👏

📸

CLOSING TOMORROWLast chance to see Silent Language tomorrow, 12.00–17.00 at Persistence Works!This exhibition, supported...
18/05/2026

CLOSING TOMORROW

Last chance to see Silent Language tomorrow, 12.00–17.00 at Persistence Works!

This exhibition, supported by and curated by Xinru Dai, Maria Hanson, Yusi Wang & Yuxiao Zhu, brings together work made by women during creative workshops in Sheffield and Wuhan.

Using art jewellery-making to explore the complex challenges women continue to navigate, the workshops transformed making into a means of connection, exchange and storytelling.

We are especially proud that the exhibition has been organised by a long-standing YAS studio holder in Maria Hanson, and that it also features other artists from our community in Abbey Asher, Janet Barnes, Rachael Colley, Jan Hopkins, Mir Jansen & Kate Langrish Smith. Well done to everyone involved 👏👏👏

.jansen

OPEN THIS WEEKENDBringing together multiple voices and perspectives, Silent Language reflects on what it means to be a w...
15/05/2026

OPEN THIS WEEKEND

Bringing together multiple voices and perspectives, Silent Language reflects on what it means to be a woman today, and how lived experience can be translated into material form.
Supported by a British Council Connections Through Culture 2025 award, this international collaboration is curated by artists and jewellers Xinru Dai, Maria Hanson, Yusi Wang and Yuxiao Zhu.

Working across the UK and China, the project responds to the complex challenges women continue to navigate within work, society and the home.

The exhibition presents the outcomes of a series of participatory workshops held in Sheffield and Wuhan, where jewellery-making became a means of connection, exchange, and storytelling.

12.00–17.00
Persistence Works
Free entry

We are pleased to be hosting Silent Language, an exhibition of art jewellery curated by Xinru Dai, Maria Hanson, Yusi Wa...
09/05/2026

We are pleased to be hosting Silent Language, an exhibition of art jewellery curated by Xinru Dai, Maria Hanson, Yusi Wang and Yuxiao Zhu.

Bringing together multiple voices and perspectives, Silent Language reflects on what it means to be a woman today, and how lived experience can be translated into material form. The work has emerged from a series of creative workshops in Sheffield and Wuhan, inviting women to share their stories through objects.

The project is supported by a Connections Through Culture award from and brings together artists from the UK and China.

12—19 May, 12.00–17.00.
Persistence Works, S1 2BS.

Join us this Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May for two studio Open Days at Exchange Place (12.00 — 16.00). These Open Days for...
07/05/2026

Join us this Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May for two studio Open Days at Exchange Place (12.00 — 16.00). These Open Days form part of Testing Ground #007 with artist-in-residence Lucie Kordačová.

Drop in to the Project Space where you’ll find Lucie developing new work and chatting with visitors. She has been experimenting with a wide range of materials, sculpting them around metal armatures and considering how their symbolic meanings shift in proximity to one another. A series of bodily sculptures made from h**p wool has emerged, which might become part of a sound installation in collaboration with flautist .farag.

Come and see for yourself in these relaxed sessions ahead of our Closing Event on 22 May (save the date!).

YAS is home to a vibrant, experienced and highly skilled ceramics community, so we’re really pleased that some of them w...
29/04/2026

YAS is home to a vibrant, experienced and highly skilled ceramics community, so we’re really pleased that some of them will be taking part in Open Up Sheffield this year. This offers you the opportunity to explore their studios and our unique kiln facilities, meet our talented makers, and buy their work.

Ceramic work will be shared across a broad range of styles, from wheel-thrown pottery with gas-fired finishes to sculptural pieces with intricate mark-making, showcasing the wide variety of ways clay is used at YAS.

Participating artists: , , .baggaley.pottery, , , , , .pots, , , , .

The event is hosted in our Basement Studios and our Kiln Yard, featuring a sheltered workspace and urban garden. It is located at the back of our building, near BBC Radio Sheffield (please note there is no entry via gallery or studio entrances).

—

OPEN DAYS (11.00–17.00)

Saturday 2nd May
Sunday 3rd May
Monday 4th May
Saturday 9th May
Sunday 10th May

—

Free to visit, everyone welcome.
For more information, visit openupsheffield.co.uk

SMALL RETURNS — FINAL FEW DAYSDON’T MISS OUT…All good things come to an end, and that includes our current exhibition Ge...
23/04/2026

SMALL RETURNS — FINAL FEW DAYS
DON’T MISS OUT…

All good things come to an end, and that includes our current exhibition George Shaw: Small Returns. This Saturday is your final chance to see this brilliant exhibition by an iconic British artist, so make sure to visit before we close the doors.

Our final open days are Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April, 12.00–17.00. Entry is free.

The exhibition features three never-before-seen paintings — ‘ACAB’, ‘Nostalgia’, and ‘Small Returns’ — created for this exhibition & revisiting his roots in Coventry’s Tile Hill estate. He describes the process as following a fictional character, “Small”, as they write their way across a landscape of returning. As the exhibition title suggests, such journeys through life may be futile, yet they can also testify to an ancient and natural desire to assert our presence against the cruel and inevitable passage of time.

These new works have been really popular with visitors and we are pleased that one of them has already found a new home. Come down to Persistence Works to see them for yourself and email [email protected] if you’re interested in seeing a price list.

📸 .baggaley

1: Small Returns, 2025
2: ACAB, 2025
3: Nostalgia, 2025

George Shaw: Small Returns is open today, 12.00–17.00, at Persistence Works Gallery. If you’re in Sheffield for the ch...
18/04/2026

George Shaw: Small Returns is open today, 12.00–17.00, at Persistence Works Gallery. If you’re in Sheffield for the championship and wanting to also see some amazing art, head on down. We’d love to have you.

Shaw’s paintings capture moments in time from the council estate in Coventry where he grew up. This exhibition reflects on his experiences of leaving and returning — revisiting places from his past as well as images, motifs, themes, and memories.

Rooting the exhibition in Sheffield, Small Returns also features a display of early work made during Shaw’s time as a student at Sheffield Polytechnic in the late 1980s, and archival material from that period.

This formative era and the themes of the exhibition are further captured in a playlist curated by Shaw. In an interview with Adelle Stripe for , Shaw “rifles through a bag of vinyl[…] telling stories connected to works exhibited in Small Returns, he reveals how these 13 records helped inform the neurotic boy outsider who one day became the master of ‘finding poetry in the mundane’.”

Links to both the playlist and the interview are available in our bio. Happy listening/reading! Next week is your last chance to see the show, so don’t delay…

Address

Persistence Works, 21 Brown Street
Sheffield
S12BS

Telephone

+441142761769

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Yorkshire Artspace posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Yorkshire Artspace:

Shortcuts

Share

Category